Gilded Age Timeline and Notes (for Units 7 & 8)
AP United States History
Web version: http://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/historyonline/gildedage_chron.cfm (with edits by Mr. Broach)
As mentioned in class, the Gilded Age is a very complex time period and covered thematically in class. This is a period
often confusing to students, yet important to understanding the development of the United States in the late 1800s and
in setting the stage for the twentieth century. Therefore, I have taken this timeline from a trusted website and made my
own notes and questions for you as a “guided notes” handout. I hope that you find this helpful.
The major themes of this era are:
• Stalemated national politics and the “forgettable” presidents
• Corrupt state & local politics
• Westward Expansion and Indian Wars
• Industrial Expansion (Technology, Business Practices, Political, Social and Economic Effects)
• Growth of Labor Unions as a result of poor working conditions and corrupt business practices
• End of Reconstruction and Segregation in the South, the “Jim Crow” Era
• Growth of the cities (with problems) and a new urban culture
• Mass Culture in the late 1800s: Skyscrapers, baseball, etc…
• Diverse Immigration (S & E Europe; China; Japan; Mexico)
• Education, Literature, Philosophy (pragmatism movement)
• Beginnings of another women’s rights movement, crusades to improve morality and other social reform
movements
• Imperialism and a growing influence of the United States in World Affairs (leading to the Spanish-American War)
1868
-Congress enacts an 8-hour workday for workers employed by the
government.
-The 14th Amendment to the US Constitution grants citizenship to
anyone born in the United States and guarantees due process and
equal protection of the laws. …
1869
-A golden spike is driven into a railroad tie at Promontory Point, Utah,
completing the transcontinental railroad. Built in just over three
years by 20,000 workers, it had 1,775 miles of track. The railroad's
promoters received 23 million acres of land and $64 million in loans as
an incentive. (Review Pacific Railway Act of 1862, change in the role
of the federal government: land grants to RR companies to spark
westward expansion)
1870
-US population: 39,818,449.
-31-year-old John D. Rockefeller forms Standard Oil of Ohio. (review
term horizontal integration)
NOTE: Be sure to know the major “Captains of Industry”: Rockefeller,
Carnegie, J.P. Morgan, Vanderbilt and why they are important to
understanding the politics of the era
-Hiram R. Revels of Mississippi becomes the first African American to
serve in the US Senate. Joseph H. Rainey of South Carolina becomes
the first black Representative.
-The 15th Amendment to the US Constitution guarantees the right to
vote regardless "of race, color, or previous condition of servitude."
1871
-The Great Chicago Fire claims 250 lives and destroys 17,500 buildings.
1872
-Montgomery Ward begins to sell goods to rural customers by mail.
(Notice here how the American market economy is changing because
of new transportation technology, this begins a period of mail-order
houses and catalog buying and the beginnings of the modern
advertising industry)
-Nov. 5: Susan B. Anthony and other women's suffrage advocates are
arrested for attempting to vote in Rochester, N.Y.
1873
-The Financial Panic of 1873 begins. 5,183 business fail. (Result:
Specie Resumption Act, federal government returns to gold
standard, causes DEFLATION) It is very important that you
understand how inflation/deflation cycles affected the economy of
the 1800s. (how does this affect farmers? Industrial workers?
Businesses?)
1874
-The introduction of barbed wire provides the first economical way to
fence in cattle on the Great Plains. (helps end the “long drives” era of
cowboys herding cattle across the plains and begins the period of
ranching. The later invention of the refrigerated car by G. Swift will
also end the era of the cowboy)
-The discovery of gold leads thousands of prospectors to trespass on
Indian lands the Black Hills in Dakota territory.
1875
-Congress passes the Civil Rights Act of 1875 to guarantee equal use
of public accommodations and places of public amusement. It also
forbids the exclusion of African Americans from jury duty.
1876
-29-year-old Alexander Graham Bell patents the telephone.
-George A. Custer and 265 officers and enlisted men are killed by
Sioux Indians led by Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse at the Little Big Horn
River in Montana. (be sure to review the Indian Wars and end of the
Plains Indians)
1877
-An electoral commission declares Rutherford Hayes the winner of the
disputed presidential election.
-President Hayes begins to withdraw federal troops from the South,
marking the official end to Reconstruction.
-The Great Railroad Strikes begins in Marinsburg, W. Va., after the
Baltimore and Ohio Railroad imposes a 10 percent wage cut.
-30-year-old Thomas Edison invents the phonograph.
1878
-The Senate defeats a woman's suffrage amendment 34-16. (pay
attention to the women’s rights movement of the era)
1879
-Thomas Edison invents the light bulb.
-Henry George publishes Progress and Poverty (what is life really like
in the cities?)
1880
-US population: 50,155,783
1881
-President James Garfield is shot by Charles Guiteau, a disgruntled
office-seeker. He died on Sept. 19.
-Helen Hunt Jackson publishes A Century of Dishonor (note the
growing criticism of U.S.-Indian policy in the 1870s and 1880s)
1882
-Attorney Samuel Dodd devises the trust, under which stockholders
turn over control of previously independent companies to a board of
trustees.
-Congress passes the Chinese Exclusion Act, barring Chinese
immigration for ten years.
1883
-Samuel Gompers testifies before a Congressional committee about
his organization, the American Federation of Labor. (pay close
attention to the growth of labor unions in this era)
-Congress passes the Pendleton Act, establishing a Civil Service
Commission and filling government positions by a merit system,
including competitive examinations.
-The Supreme Court rules that the Civil Rights Act of 1875 only forbids
state-imposed discrimination, not that by individuals or corporations.
(Civil Rights Cases of 1883 unravel the legal achievements of
Reconstruction)
-Brooklyn Bridge opens
1884
-Construction begins in Chicago on the first building with a steel
skeleton, William Jenney's ten-story Home Insurance Company,
marking the birth of the skyscraper.
-With help of Irish-American voters, Democratic presidential nominee
Grover Cleveland carried New York by 1,149 votes and won the
election.
1880s Politics Note: Be sure to pay attention to the topics of party
patronage, tariff policies and the currency debate (who supported what?
And why?)
1886
-Dr. Stanton Coit opens the first settlement house in New York to
provide social services to the poor.
-Over 300,000 workers demonstrate in behalf of an eight-hour work
day.
-The Haymarket Square bombing in Chicago kills seven police officers
and wounds sixty.
-The Supreme Court holds that corporations are persons covered by
the 14th Amendment, and are entitled to due process.
-President Grover Cleveland unveils the Statue of Liberty.
-The American Federation of Labor was founded, with Samuel
Gompers as president. Membership was restricted to skilled
craftsmen. why skilled craftsmen? In the development of labor
unions, what was the debate here?
-Wabash v. Illinois case (important for understanding ICC below)
1887
-The Interstate Commerce Act requires railroads to charge reasonable
rates and forbids them from offering rate reductions to preferred
customers. This is very important. What were farmers complaints
here? How did farmers organize to address this?
-The Dawes Severalty Act subdivides Indian reservations into
individual plots of land of 160 to 320 acres. "Surplus" lands are sold to
white settlers. (understand the concept of assimilation)
-American Protective Association formed (nativism returns again!
And stronger – why?)
1889
-New Jersey permits holding companies to buy up the stock of other
corporations.
-President Benjamin Harrison opens a portion of Oklahoma to white
settlement. (Review boomers & sooners)
-Secretary of State James G. Blaine hosts the First Pan-American
Conference
-Jane Addams founds Hull House (beginning of the settlement house
movement)
1890
-US population: 62,947,714.
-The US Bureau of the Census announces that the western frontier
was now closed.
-Congress passes the Sherman Anti-Trust Act (was this effective for
the time period?)
-Mississippi Plan. Mississippi restricts black suffrage by requiring
voters to demonstrate an ability to read and interpret the US
Constitution. (literacy tests for voting in the South)
-Wounded Knee Massacre.
-High protective tariffs created a surplus in federal revenue, in 1890,
most of this was spent by the “Billion Dollar Congress” – know
McKinley Tariff Act and the pension bill
-Captain Alfred Thayer Mahan publishes The Influence of Sea Power
upon History
1891
-James Naismith, a physical education instructor at the YMCA Training
College in Springfield, Mass., invents basketball.
-The Populist party is founded in Cincinnati, Ohio.
1892
-Ellis Island opens to screen immigrants. Twenty million immigrants
passed through it before it was closed in 1954.
-Henry Clay Frick, who managed Andrew Carnegie's steelworks at
Homestead, Pa., cuts wages, precipitating a strike that begins June 26.
In a pitched battle with Pinkerton guards, brought in to protect the
plant, ten strikers and three Pinkertons are killed. Pennsylvania's
governor then sent in the state militia to protect strikebreakers. The
strike ended Nov. 20.
-Populist Party adopts its “Omaha platform” The Populist Party is
extremely important to understand (and often appears on the AP
exam). Know the platform issues and why it eventually failed.
1893
-Pro-American interests depose Queen Liliuokalani of Hawaii.
-Largest financial crash to date, Panic of 1893 (know causes – from
the farming frontier, to the business practices of the late 1800s to
the currency debate)
-Frederick Jackson Turner’s thesis, The Significance of the Frontier in
American History
1894
-Coxey's Army. Jacob Coxey leads a march on Washington by the
unemployed.
-Pullman Strike. Workers at the Pullman sleeping car plant in Chicago
go on strike after the company cut wages without reducing rents in
company-owned housing. The American Railway Union begins to
boycott trains carrying Pullman cars.
-Federal troops enforce a court injunction forbidding the American
Railway Union from interfering with interstate commerce and delivery
of the mail.
-Wilson-Gorman Tariff of 1894 reduces tariffs (supported by
Democrat President Grover Cleveland)
1895
-The Supreme Court strikes down an income tax.
-J.P. Morgan loans $65B to federal government.
1896
-Plessy v. Ferguson. The US Supreme Court rules that segregation of
blacks and whites was permitted under the Constitution so long as
both races receive equal facilities. (landmark Supreme Court case,
overturned by ___ in 1954)
-"You shall not crucify mankind upon a cross of gold." William Jennings
Bryan electrified the Democratic convention with his "Cross of Gold"
speech and received the party's nomination, but was defeated Nov. 3
by Republican William McKinley.
1898
-Spanish-American War. As a result of the conflict, the United States
acquires Puerto Rico, Guam, and the Philippines.
-President McKinley signs a resolution annexing Hawaii.
1899
-Delegates from the US and 25 other nations meet at The Hague to
discuss disarmament, arbitration of international disputes, protection
of noncombatants, and limitations on methods of warfare.
-John Hay’s “open door notes” on China
-John D. Rockefeller comments on Industrial Combinations.